GUIDE TO THE PHILOSOPHY 1938 - 1947.pdf - Rare Books at ...

SOVEREIGNTY AND NATURAL RIGHTS 55!
moral imperative, irrespective of consequences in the shape
of rewards and punishments. To act always and whole-
heartedly in accordance with the dictates of the good will,
to obey always the injunctions of the moral imperative,
is to realize the highest development of which man is
him. In
capable, and to fulfil God's purpose in creating
this process of self-development the State plays a double
part.
GREEN'S ATTRIBUTION OF A TWOFOLD FUNCTION TO
THE STATE. First, there are various external hindrances
to the development ofman's moral self which it is the function
of the State to remove. As I have already pointed out
in another connection, 1 a man cannot pursue the good life,
whatever the terms in which it is conceived, unless he feels
reasonably secure from the grosser forms of physical
violence. He also requires to be safeguarded against the
uncertainties of tyrannous caprice and, we may add,
although Green does not do so, against the menace of
disabling poverty. He needs, as we should say to-day, legal
justice and economic security. All these hindrances to the
good life it is the State's business to remove. "The function
of government/' Green writes, "is to maintain conditions
of life in which morality shall be possible, and morality
consists in the disinterested performance of self-imposed
duties." The State's business, then, is to establish the
minimum conditions in the absence of which the moral
life cannot be lived. These minimum conditions are
regarded by Green as being in the nature of rights. We
may say, then, .that a man's rights are, in the first place,
to those external conditions which are necessary to the
realization of his moral self by means of the free activity
of the good will. This conclusion is expressed by Green
as follows:
*
"
Every moral person is capable of rights; i.e., of bearing
his part in a society in which the free exercise of his powers
is secured to each member through the recognition by
1 See Chapter I, pp. 39, 40.